


Bus Rides

by regalbelle (sanversjade)



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-07
Updated: 2015-02-07
Packaged: 2018-03-11 00:27:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3308870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanversjade/pseuds/regalbelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Red Beauty AU (with a little bit of Swan Queen and also Graham):<br/>they’re all seniors in high school and Ruby finds a reason to get up early in the mornings…</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bus Rides

_**It had been freezing outside, so she was happy when the bus finally pulled up next to her. She got on and sat in her usual seat in the middle of the bus. Curling up her legs underneath her, she grabbed her book and tried to find the page where she stopped reading this morning. Soon, she was sucked into her favorite book’s fictional world.** _

_**She wasn’t very aware of anything happening around her, even though the bus was stuffed with high schoolers. She vaguely noticed someone sitting down next to her, but she didn’t care enough to look who it was. She kept reading during the entire bus ride and she was devastated when she finished her book. What was she supposed to do on the ride home?** _

~

**“Ruby, for god’s sake! The bus will be here in ten minutes! Get your ass out of bed, now!”**

**Ruby rolled her eyes as she continued getting dressed. Her Granny never really cared much for subtlety. Little did she know that Ruby hadn’t overslept in months and actually got up really early every day to mentally prepare herself for school.**

**It’s not that she worried about her grades or that she didn’t have any friends, quite the opposite actually. Her grades weren’t exceptional, but considering the fact that Ruby hardly ever studied, they were pretty good. She also didn’t need to worry about friends; Ruby was one of Storybrooke High’s popular kids.**

**Neither of those had anything to do with her early awakenings. It was something else. Someone else to be precise. It had all started that one day in September…**

Ruby got a lot of attention from everyone in school. The number of dates she turned down was getting out of hand, but she just didn’t feel like getting anyone’s hopes up and then crushing them later on. But no matter how many people came up to her, she just never met anyone she liked.

That was until the beginning of senior year, when the new girl transferred into their school. The new kids usually heard of Ruby’s gang very soon and the other teens usually told them that the cafeteria was divided in ‘cool’ and ‘not-so-cool’ sections, but it soon became clear that no one told this girl.

 _“You have to be kidding me..”, Regina sighed, “that new girl is sitting in_ my _spot! Graham, do something.”_

_“Alright love, I’m on my way”, Graham said while winking at a moody Regina. Emma shot him a warning glance before stepping closer to Regina; they’d been girlfriends since the beginning of April and were still going strong five months later._

_Ruby felt bad for the girl when Graham leaned against the table and got her attention by tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. Apparently he startled her, because she jumped up and dropped her book while doing so. Ruby noticed that she wasn’t even eating, she was just reading a very thick book._

_When the girl looked up to Graham, Ruby had to steady herself against the wall. That girl had the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen._

_“So, what may your name be, beautiful?”, Graham flirtatiously asked. “It’s Belle, Belle French.”, the girl said. Ruby admired her serene confidence. It was like she did not care what others thought of her and that was refreshing to see. She felt drawn to the girl, Belle, in an inexplicable way. Luckily, she grabbed her book and left, so no one was going to have to make a scene._

In the weeks that followed, Ruby kept walking past Belle in the hallways and she was even in most of her classes. She started to notice little things about the girl, like how she always bumped into her locker and stood there reading for another few minutes before putting her novel away and hurrying to class, or how she twirled her hair between her fingers in every class except for math, because that was when she chewed on the back of her pencil with a cute little frown between her brows. And how she always tucked her legs underneath her in an incredibly adorable way. Those were just a few of the long list of endearing things she started to really like about Belle.

Only Graham knew about Ruby’s growing crush, since they always sat next to each other in the back of the bus. Regina drove her own car and she picked up Emma every morning. Ruby was very happy to have those quiet bus rides where she would talk with her best friend. She and Graham had been friends since preschool and Ruby felt very thankful to have such a great friend.

Those quiet morning talks didn’t occur very often anymore, since Graham had been taking driving lessons and was allowed to drive his dad’s car now. He had offered to drive Ruby to school, but she declined, meaning she sat in the back of the bus on her own now. Usually she was still half asleep, but for some reason she wasn’t tired two weeks ago and that’s why, for the first time, she really paid attention to the other kids on the bus. 

It didn’t take her long to notice Belle’s curls a few rows in front of her across the aisle. Ruby sat up straight and tried to get a better view, because unfortunately those curls were the only thing she could see. The otherwise so brave Ruby didn’t know how to approach the girl, so she ended up squirming uncomfortably in her seat the entire bus ride. She pep talked herself throughout the whole day and in the afternoon she took place right next to Belle. Breathing in carefully she glanced over at the bookworm. Belle hadn’t even looked up, she was reading a very thick book, again.

Ever since then, Ruby got up early and continued to sit next to her every morning and every afternoon of every day for the next few weeks. Too shy to say anything, but also not wanting to leave Belle’s presence. Ruby always got away unnoticed. Until that one afternoon in early December, when Belle didn’t bring a book…

~

**When the bell rang, Belle put on her coat and mittens and grabbed her backpack. She slowly strolled through the corridors, wanting to avoid the snow outside. The cold, sticky stuff always looked so beautiful to her, until she actually had to walk in the frozen air and slipped over every icy spot.**

**Once outside, she hurried her way to the bus and quickly got on and sat in her usual spot. She was still mad at herself for finishing her book that morning, which meant she had nothing to do for the next twenty minutes.**

**A few minutes after Belle, Ruby got on and sat next to her without looking up from her English assignment, that she was trying to understand. She stuffed her bag under her seat and threw her gloves there too.**

**Belle eyed the beautiful girl next to her. She had long dark brown hair and the most gorgeous eyes Belle had ever seen. The little snowflakes that were stuck on her long lashes had Belle smiling at the tall girl next to her.**

**Ruby couldn’t be bothered by the stupid assignment that wasn’t due till next week anymore, so she put it in her bag. That’s when she looked up for the first time and noticed Belle smiling at her. She shot up straight immediately and felt a blush creep up on her as she tried to form words, but failed miserably. She looked Belle straight in the eyes and almost drowned.**

**Belle startled Ruby with a soft ‘Hey.. I’m Belle. You’re Ruby, right?’ and all Ruby could do was grin and nod. They started talking after Belle commented on that English assignment and before they knew it, they arrived at Ruby’s stop. ‘Uh.. Can I sit next to you again tomorrow?’, Ruby asked while standing up and retrieving her bag from under her seat. ‘Sure thing’, Belle smiled, turning bright red as Ruby blew her a kiss and jumped of the bus.**

**Finishing her book that morning may not have been the worst thing after all…**


End file.
